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Best Practices: File Naming Convention

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ITSM Best Practices Tip by Freelance ITSM Consultant with 100+ Implementations in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore

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An often overlooked best practice is that for file naming conventions.

Files should always be renamed with a prefix of the last modified date in YYYY-MM-DD format, for sorting purposes, and contain a meaningful name and version number.

The file name itself should be meaningful to the subject matter and topic at hand, for example if you’re working on UAT Test Scripts for ITSM then you could use 2020-05-19 ITSM – UAT Test Scripts as the complete file name. Leading Date, Subject Mater, and Topic.

Descriptions such as “final” and “complete” should also be discouraged as 99% of the time there will be revisions.

This best practice ensures files are easily found, sorted, and clearly indicate the last modified date, version, and file contents.   

Note that the file saved date/time often changes as files are sent via email, download again, copied, or saved by mistake.

For example, Task #8043 has two attachments and without proper file naming conventions it is unclear which file is the latest for the ITSM UAT Test scripts:

  1. Copy of 2020-09-11 – Sample UAT Test Scripts Complete.xls
    should be
    2020-09-11 ITSM – UAT Test Scripts v2
  2. 2020-09-11 – Sample UAT Test Scripts Complete.xls
    should be
    2020-09-14 ITSM – UAT Test Scripts v3

In Summary, for file naming conventions use the format YYYY-MM-DD Subject Matter – Topic – v#.

By Freelance ITSM Consultant

Freelance Consultant, Developer since 1996 with 100+ ITSM/ITAM/ESM Implementations

Extensive Implementation Experience with ITSM products such as but not limited to Ivanti Neurons, Ivanti Service Manager, and HEAT ITSM

Past Customers include Fortune 500 & Global 500 Enterprise Clients, Frontrange Business Partners, Ivanti Business Partners, and private Swiss banks.

Roles and Responsibilities from Project Management, System Architecture, Design, Development, Consulting (technical & functional)

Worldwide in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, and the USA

Disclaimer: Not endorsed by, affiliated with, or sponsored by Ivanti
"Ivanti Consultant" refers to job description, experience, and skill set with Ivanti's product line and is merely descriptive of the fact that I have experience with Ivanti's ITSM products.

I have never been directly employed by Ivanti,

I have been employed by Frontrange Business Partners and sub-contracted by Ivanti Business Partners to work with Ivanti Project Managers and/or Ivanti Implementations